Chapter 14: Secretive Laboratory

[Azazel POV]

In the midst of the city, everyone is smiling and doing construction at the damage that the angels did.

Even if they're not construction workers, they can't help but still work to make the city more beautiful.

"How wonderful, it's a pity that this wouldn't last." Satanael standing on top of one of the buildings is observing the smiles and happiness of his people; feeling pity that he wouldn't see this again, but if it's to do what he's supposed to do, then Satanael won't hesitate to sacrifice his beloved people. "Now then, Mammon you ready?"

"Yes, I'll go to the newspaper production now."

How sad it would be... Seeing people of the same race fight.

Satanael who's laughing in enjoyment for imagining what would the outcome be, thought that will they succeed? Or will they lose? Either way, as long as the people's morale and trust disappear, they win the game. "Yes... This pathetic world is nothing but an endless deadly board game for us to play, people are the same, in the end, you just die.

Now... Goodbye for now, my beloved home..."

Mammon in the newspaper production building was having a meeting with the CEO of the team for the news that they're gonna publish throughout the entirety of Hell.

"Lord Mammon, so what's the purpose of your visit?"

"I want you to publish a newspaper unique to us, Archdukes, and release it throughout Hell for people to read, so... Xan you do it?"

"Of course, but you have to understand my Lord, it'll gonna take a week for it to finish."

"Then if you cancel every other work and put the effort in making this, how long would it be?"

"Is it really that important, my Lord?"

With pride, Mammon stood up and raised both of his hands. "I believe so, it's about every truth that the people need to know."

"I see then if it's important, it'll take 2 days."

"I'll give you the details later." Mammon smiled in success, now that he's publicly gonna lie to people, the feeling of greed is what comes to him.

Forced Withdrawal, a skill unique to only the people with the Sin of Greed; the power of overwhelming something or someone, until the user would hold grasp to it.

Forcedly taking the emotions to fight back, is one of the reasons that Mammon is the embodiment of Greed.

"Now that that's done, we'll just have to wait for two days for the climax to begin." How melancholic it is, if only everyone could've joined us, but the world is cruel for it to do that.

"Satanael, can you hear me? I'm done." Now, time to rest for now.

"Copy that Mammon, now Milicas let's head to the seventh gate now, and Azazel head to Millie's laboratory."

The two teleported to their designated post, while Azazel stayed in the city to go to the lab and do what Satanael told him to do.

While walking to the lab, Azazel felt an unknown presence following him to wherever he is going.

Even knowing about this, Azazel kept walking so that the person following him wouldn't notice that he knew he was being followed.

Azazel cleared up his mind to think who could possibly follow him, and he has many guesses who it could be.

Which leads him to question, Which General is using espionage for their advantage? The trap they set is unbreakable to the inside, so that's why Azazel thought that it's just a wrong feeling.

Finally, at the lab; Azazel couldn't do anything but smile. "I'm here, knowing Millie she probably set something up for anyone she doesn't want to come here." Millie isn't the smartest devil without reason.

Azazel was in confusion also. "But... That strange presence has disappeared, what could it possibly be?" Even looking everywhere it completely disappeared, he decided to better not think about it a lot.

"True Skill View." Azazel's eye glowed in red, and he can now see the skills or barrier that Millie used in the laboratory, but when Azazel used it he saw nothing; no barriers were used by either Millie or Faust.

Impossible was Azazel's impression, Azazel knew that Millie was a very cautious person, so if she didn't lay out something in her lab, that's not the Millie he knows.

So he thought of what could be wrong with Millie that it'll make her not set up something in the lab.

Making many possibilities that came to mind, Azazel finally has the grasp of it; now knowing why Millie didn't put safety measures, he tremendously laughed at himself for being stupid.

That time when Azazel was walking on the street, and he felt a strange presence following him throughout the city and it's when Azazel finally got here it completely disappeared, all along that was the real trap; Millie set a spy.

"Haha! So that's why there's no presence here at the lab, *Sigh* fighting has always been inevitable." Then whoever you are watching me, I'll fight you seriously if you want.

For Azazel, getting to the lab and getting what Satanael and Yahweh want is important, and he'll do everything to get the three hidden within the lab that only Millie knows where they are.

Clenching his hand and grinning with joy and annoyance he said "Fighting and finding something that's almost impossible to find, it'll be a fun journey."

Entering the lab, Azazel saw everything inside was destroyed and the inside was tainted with a cloud of thick dark smoke.

Using a skill to see within the smoke, Azazel saw no sign of life here, and many chemicals, gadgets, and paperwork were broken and scattered everywhere. "What happened here? Did Millie plan this? Or... Is there a third party that has done this?"

Is that presence before an ally of Millie? Possibly, but in chances, it can be a third party also, so that means either someone is betraying us or them, or an Archduke from the ninth floor is keeping a secret from us.

Thinking with other possibilities Azazel continues to walk forth the lab.

Azazel remembered the layout of the lab: four floors and three underground floors that's how far he can remember when it was first built, but if they added new floors, then it'll take time.

So remembering where some secretive experiments that Millie and her scientist did, Azazel thought that the three subjects that Satanael want are on the last underground floor.

With a smile on his face, Azazel created a hole underground easily, because he has the skill of Earth Manipulation which can manipulate the element of earth.

Which meant this mission is gonna be easy for him to do, so that's the reason Satanael sent Azazel to do this.

When Azazel was on the first floor, he saw that it's almost like the first floor, but a more thicker smoke was covering it, and everything here is destroyed too.

Azazel noticed also that it's getting hard to breathe because he has been inhaling the smoke, and if it's combined with the toxic chemicals it's more lethal.

"I have to hurry!" Digging his way underground and noticing the decrease of oxygen underground, and thicker smoke was covering the third floor.

"What the h*ck? Heal!" Digging and healing his body is making him tired, but he successfully got to the third floor, and what he saw made him happy, because the third floor has no toxic smoke and the oxygen level was fine there.

"Finally-" feeling it again, Azazel noticed the presence following him in the city, and now that he's close he found out who it is and why it's following him.

"Reveal yourself, Luna!"

Revealing herself finally, it was a young beautiful girl about sixteen years of human age, wearing a goth loli dress, with long black hair, and holding a scythe as her weapon. "It's nice seeing you again sir Azazel, no- I guess I won't call you sir anymore because you're a traitor."

"I guess that either Millie or Akemi told you everything Luna, we should've known that you are helping her, and looking at it young Dawn is not with you."

"Azazel, you were my Master and you thought me many things, one of your teachings is to love Hell, but as I'm looking at you now, I see now that you're a snake."

"Then as a favor from your Master, would you consider joining me-" Almost dying from Luna throwing her scythe at him, Azazel smiled. "That hurts, I guess that's a no then. Die for me, Luna!"

She teleported behind him to get back her scythe, and Luna started summoning lots of zombies.

"Weak! You know that this won't work on me!" With just touching the ground, Azazel deformed the ground and killed every zombie that she summoned.

Noticing her next move Azazel made a stone shield from his arm and blocks her attack. "Haha! Slowing down aren't ya?! Then take this!" Forming thousands of bits of rocks, Azazel threw them everywhere.

"Foresight! Ghost veil!" Trying her best to dodge and getting hit by some, Luna dashed in forward for a hit. "This place is underground, which makes it impossible to fly."

"Bastard!" *Clap*, a crystal armor formed in him and rushed to Luna too.

Getting close to each other Luna jumped and left her scythe standing, and with the skill she used the scythe turned into a clone.

"What're you there just standing Luna!" with a punch, the cloned turned back into the scythe. "What the h*ck?" Hands of skeletons appeared from underground and held Azazel's foot tightly.

"I win, Master." With one blink of an eye, Luna took her scythe and swing it to Azazel.

Stepping back and seeing his armor broken. "You became strong. Master's proud of you Luna, I can't believe that you can now penetrate my armor, but you forgot one of my rules, and it's to check your surroundings."

Luna looked behind and saw Mammon behind her. "You lose Luna."

With one hit in the stomach, Luna became weak. "What's this?"

"I stole some of your energy, so stay right there." Azazel stood up and flicked his finger, and trapped Luna in a tight container made from rocks.

"Now, let's check what you came here for-" Jumping instantly they saw Luna escaped from the cage that Azazel trapped her in.

"Impossible, how did you escape, young Luna?"

"Never mess with an undead!" Skeletons appeared from underground and destroying every bit of rocks and replacing them with their bones turning to dust.

"How smart you are Luna! You forgot that there's two of us, and earth isn't the only type of skill I have, also bones have sulfur in them which I can use"

"you forgot that sulfur is flammable."

"Luna, don't tell me that you're gonna burn- wait you forgot that this building is made of concrete, so if you're gonna burn the building it won't work, and how are you gonna escape?"

Luna smiled at Azazel's question and with one word the floor burned and the entire building exploded. Bang!

Removing the fallen remnants of the laboratory, Azazel and Mammon came out alive. "I can't believe this, is she suicidal? And how did it explode? It's impossible, is she dead? D*mmit why? This isn't what I wanted, also how can a small fire cause that many explosions in a concrete building? There must be more than flames, but what?"

"No, look at the destroyed building Azazel, and sulfur isn't entirely flammable, so that means that it wasn't the reason for the explosion."

"Then what-, the chemicals... She might've put some gas or oil in the skeletons, and the smoke from above, It might be covering some gunpowder and sulfur dust in one of the experiments." Sulfuric dust, can cause an explosion if ignited by fire, plus there's also gunpowder, how far have you planned this Millie?

"Yes, and Luna can control the dead and the contents of the body, even her dead body she can control it and make it as clones. So that means the one you were fighting is not the real Luna, and she has long been gone with the three." Tricking even us, that's how powerful Luna has become.

"Haha, I can't believe I was outsmarted by my own student."

"For now let's report this to Satanael, and find a new way to find the three."

[Luna POV]

In a hidden room in Hell, Luna and another girl is having a meeting. "How is it Luna?" the girl asked

"Looks like Millie's plan succeeded, and she's telling the truth."

"I can't believe it, that those four were nothing but a viper to us all along."

"How about you Dawn? Did you find a way to free Millie and the others?"

With her was Dawn, she's a white-haired girl only 1 year older than Luna; she wears a goth loli dress, and most of all she's a vampire.

"Yes, but we need to get to the castle without Satanael noticing us."

"*Sigh* We need to make this successfully or we'll lose, we're fighting against the four strongest Archdukes, and in the next few days, possibly our people."

"Of course, the bat that I sent in the newspaper company saw that they'll anger the people by the news, and if they fail with that, they can just tell themselves about it."

"We have a lot of work to do now, but if it's for the safety of Hell, we can't surrender."

"Agreed, so how are the three doing?"

"They're resting, and I haven't told them about Satanael yet."

"Will we win..."That is what they both said to each other and themselves.

Their morale is already low and almost on the verge of despair, but they know that there is still hope, so giving up is meaningless.

Fighting their friends and what almost feels like family is the reason for the low morale, but even with that, they can't let Hell die.

"Now, let's go. We need to save Millie and the others."

Preparing their things and eating their food to get ready, they both looked at the picture frame of the Archdukes together and left a sad smile that they'll never forget.

Will this end? And will we ever live in peace? These are the questions they both ask themselves.

[Satanael POV]

In the seventh gate, Satanael and Azazel are having a meeting.

"So your report?"

"We were outsmarted by Millie, it looks like she planned what to do in the lab before and took the three out of there, and even sacrificed her beloved lab."

"*Sigh* So Millie knows that we were gonna get the three, so how did the building explode?"

"Millie told Luna everything and Luna created a clone to fight me and set the lab on fire, and the possibility of Dawn joining Millie too is high, so maybe Dawn is somewhere in Hell doing her task."

"I see, so they both joined them... But how did they contact them if the messaging system is sealed by the barrier?"

"Vladamir got to Tastraria early remember? So that's the reason Luna and Dawn know about it, probably someone told Vladamir everything before even the meeting started."

"Millie... If we could eliminate her already, we'll win instantly, so Mammon what about you?"

"It'll take two days for it to finish, so we have to wait."

"D*mn this is not what I expected to turn out to, how did they know that we were going to the lab? And what made them act instantly?"

A portal appeared in front of them, and Yahweh came out.

"Satanael, after your mission, I want you four to come with me." He said

"What to Heaven? You know there'll be problems."

"Don't worry, I have a secret base back on Earth that you can stay in, and also I want you to back out on capturing the three."

"D*mn old bastard, you could've earlier told us that." Satanael was bewildered by Yahweh's late declaration.

"I'm sorry, I was busy dealing with stuff with the other Gods."

"*Sigh* just lower the morale and it's okay, but you know if we get more sacrifices then it'll increase our chances."

"It would, but it'll be risky to do."

"Fine, so if we just either make a civil war or a protest then it's fine right?"

Yahweh turned his back and smiled at them. "Ye,s it'll work."

"Sure whatever you say old man, but you remember our condition right?"

"Don't worry, I promise you that I'll do it, even if you four disappears."

"Good, now leave, so that you won't disturb us."

Now, what would our next move be; for now our target is Luna and Dawn, but where could they be? "Haha! This is getting interesting, I wonder what's next."